Dancer
by Tadpole24
Summary: "They move in tandem, always circling each other, always just out of reach." BB. Post 5x21, The Boy with the Answer.


**I'm gonna go curl up in a ball until the finale comes on! **

**This is just a little post ep for 5x21, which I found to be a very scary episode. A lot of big things tackled in it. If you haven't seen it yet, don't read this. **

**Enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I'm not Hart Hanson...I have to remind myself of that everyday...sigh.**

..:::..

Dancer

..:::..

Their relationship is a dance.

It is a slow dance.

It is a fast dance.

It is sometimes a dance around a campfire.

It is sometimes more jumping than technical movement.

Everything about them is a dance.

They move around each other, never quite touching. They leave room for others to dance with them, but the world knows that their eyes will always be connected to one another. Their dance will always be their own.

What happens between them, is theirs and theirs alone.

It has been a dance since the beginning; they shift and shuffle into and out of each other's way. They move in tandem, always circling each other, always just out of reach.

Their dancing is filled with spins and twirls, it is complicated but it is still theirs. Others have joined their dance, adding to the complexity of it all. Catherine and Andrew were both awkward movers, they darted in and out between the gliding motion of Booth and Brennan. And as suddenly as they had joined, they left, knowing that interrupting a dance of such beauty would be detrimental to more than just a working relationship.

They danced on fine lines, coming closer and closer. He had a wish of happiness for her. He wished for all kinds of things, but most of all, a dance. He wished that they could stop circling each other in their separate dances and finally join for a slow dance where he could hold her the way he wanted and she could find comfort in him the way she wanted.

They had teetered on the edge, each waiting for the other to make the move...

And as they teetered, she took a step back. Starting her own dance all over again.

He sighed as he watched the cab pull away yet again, taking his love with it.

And they say she has abandonment issues.

He worries for their future, he worries for tomorrow. He worries for himself and he worries for her.

She had said that the relationships around her were taking their toll on her objectivity, she was compartmentalizing again, closing off to the world around her. He remembered when they first met, he remembered how she was back then, he remembered explaining to her the importance of having people around her, he remembered breaking down her wall bit by bit.

And now, now she was reverting, and he couldn't do a damn thing to stop it. The tighter held her, the more she slipped away, dancing towards a reality which could not include him.

It angered him, to be honest, it angered him that if he was to walk away he would compromise everything he'd worked so hard to prove to her, that some relationships are forever, sometimes people don't walk away. And yet, she could step away from him all the time, she could walk away and know that he would always chase her.

Her faith in him was that strong that she knew without _knowing_ that Booth would never walk away.

He listens as the sounds of happiness fade around the corner; the sounds of his friends congratulating the undying love that is Hodgins and Angela. He wants so badly to be a part of that happiness, he wants his dance.

He takes a few steps and starts to let his mind wander. He lets it go back to the month before, he lets it focus on that night where they had danced across a fine line and crashed into each other. He lets himself remember the way she had clung to their partnership. He lets that thought give him hope, and then he recalls the way she had crushed his heart tonight.

"_I might need more than a little time."_

She wants to run again, and he is powerless to stop her.

Holding her too tightly will only make her run faster.

He finds himself outside of her apartment building, watching her window from the road. He doesn't know how long he's been walking and he can't remember the route he took to get here, but he watches, aware of the creepiness of the act, but not caring.

He sees the light in her window flutter as a wind carries her curtains across her bedroom and then back to the balcony. He watches the light flicker and fade as he checks his watch, realising it is definitely bed time.

He feels like they're dancing further away than ever right now, in this moment. He's pulling, she's pushing. They're reaching a combustion point, a point where all the cracks in the dam are going to join and break. But where they're dancing, this great distance between them, it's too far away from the dam. He feels like it will break and they'll be too far away from each other to do a thing about it.

He goes to turn away, but her light flicking back on catches his eye, a second light, perhaps her living room, flicks on and then he is curious.

His feet carry him across the street and he's about to let himself into the building when she comes running out.

"What are you doing here, Booth?"

Her hair is damp, in tendrils around her face as though she had a shower and couldn't be bothered drying it before she went to bed. Her pyjamas consist of shorts and a t-shirt and she looks entirely too cold to be standing outside, and yet, she came to him.

"I-" he pauses, unsure, "I don't know." He knows it's lame, but how else can he describe the act of his subconscious leading him here in the middle of the night to the woman who doesn't believe in psychology?

She shakes her head, "Well, you're here now, you can come in."

She turns, hoping he'll just follow her, too drained for niceties.

He takes a step and then catches himself, "It's OK, Bones...you want to sleep, I'll just go."

She looks at him, her hand on the door; her eyes are sad, downcast.

She pushes herself away from the door and takes the big four steps to invade his personal space. With unsure eyes and shaking arms, she hugs him tightly. His arms come up to wrap around her in the same instance and he feels the fist around his heart ease its hold a little.

"Yes Booth, you will see me tomorrow."

"That's all I need to know."

He plants a kiss in her hair and releases her. As she walks inside he turns to walk the rest of the way to his apartment.

They're still dancing, still not touching, but they're close enough that when the dam breaks, they'll both feel its force.

..:::..

**Let me know how you went :)**

**Em**


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